Spirits
by Victorian Asylum
Summary: It was lightning fast, as black as the night. It almost made the Avatar State seem like child's play, tossing Korra like a doll. How do you fight something like that? Something that can strike you down at your most powerful? Oneshot, focusing on the teaser from Season 2 in which the Spirit attacks Korra.


**Note: **This is based off a tiny portion of storyboard they released as a teaser for season 2 at ComiCon. If you haven't watched it, they have plenty of videos of it on YouTube.

**X X X**

"Korra! Korra!"

Her name swims through the air, a sound muffled as if underwater. It barely registers, a small thought banging on the back of her head. She can't respond to it. The breath is gone from her lungs, leaving her chest heaving uselessly in a vain attempt to recoup what has been lost.

Shock, coupled with the force of the impact with which she had hit the ground, renders her momentarily incapable of thinking, let alone moving or talking.

"Korra!" Her name registers once more, louder, closer. Enough for her to make out the concern lacing the word.

Snow crunches underfoot and in the next instant, people are surrounding her, kneeling beside her. Her vision is blurry, filled with constellations, but she can make out a bearded face among them, a flash of dark curly locks, horror-stricken golden eyes.

Suddenly, everything comes back. Her mind connects, her lungs remember their function. She gulps down air, coughs and splutters and tries to sit up on shaking arms. This is a bad idea. Blackness zooms across her vision and threatens to pull her into unconsciousness.

"Korra, lay down." She obeys the voice. Tenzin's voice, if her rattled mind is correct. Yes, her mentor is here. So is Bolin, Asami, Mako, her parents, cousins... It's almost overwhelming, and though the gesture is heartwarming, it is also embarrassing, to have so many people around after such a grand failure. Underneath it all, there is a deep sense of fear at what it meant.

Korra wants to spit out everything that happened. Multiple people saw it, but not from her vantage point, up above it all. Not the whole thing. Of course, she didn't see the end of it, but she didn't need to to know this was very bad.

"Korra," Tenzin says, leaning over her. There are hard lines carved between his eyebrows, which are furrowed with concern. "Just hold on. Katara is coming"

"I- The spi- it's- I'm-" She finds herself unable to form the words, or even think of what she wants to tell them. That she isn't in danger of dying, at least, she doesn't think she is. But all she can see is the beautiful starry sky over a handful of heads. She doesn't quite fell connected to her body. Maybe she really is dying.

Reality is slipping from her grasp. The world is dimming, the faces blurring into indistinct shapes. Korra wants to stay awake, to shake it off, assure everyone she is alright. She tries to fight it, but the lure is too strong, the promise of rest too sweet.

The world goes as black as the spirit she had encountered.

**X X X**

When Korra awakens, the world is warm and soft.

She is swathed in familiar animal hide blankets and this time there is no one around. The back of her head throbs in a dull manner that suggests it has the potential to grow into a full fledged migraine. The Avatar blinks up at the ceiling as she gathers her thoughts, to memories from, what was it, yesterday? She is unsure how long she was out.

"Korra?" A voice calls from the doorway. It's comforting, a motherly tone that Korra knows all to well. She smiles slightly as the elderly women shuffles over to her, her shock of white hair in the same style as always. "You gave us quite the scare." Katara's gentle tone carries a lot of weight. 'Scare' was an understatement. Korra had been cut down at her most powerful, slammed to the earth like a rag doll.

She sits up slowly, keenly aware of the agony she feels shoot from her chest. The pain makes her gasp. "Careful," Katara warns sternly. "You fractured several ribs. Don't try to sit up just yet."

"I'm fine," Korra manages, though her voice breaks at the end. "Can you get Tenzin? He..." She sucks in a breath through clenched teeth. "I really need to talk to him."

"About the spirit?" Katara's face is grim. "He has been tearing out his beard over the news, trying to figure out what happened."

She says nothing more, quietly inspecting Korra before exiting the hut. A moment that feels like a lifetime passes, and then Tenzin is in the doorway, relief washing over his face. There a small bags under his eyes, barely noticeable. Yet, his whole demeanor evokes a sense of exhaustion. "You're awake."

"And no worse for the wear," she gets out. If she doesn't move, the pain starts to ebb away, falling down to manageable levels. She attempts a grin that ends up as a grimace. She tried.

Tenzin takes a seat next to her, crossing his legs as if he was going to meditate. This close, Korra can see flecks of worry still sparking in his eyes, but they hold a fatherly softness. "Where did the spirit come from?"

Korra slowly shakes her head, careful not to irritate the the throbbing at the base of it. "From the north. Naga sense it long before I did. She was howling, so I went out to calm her before she woke everyone up. Then it attacked. It was so fast, I could barely track it."

Tenzin nods slowly, absorbing the information. He begins to stroke his beard. "It caused quite a bit of destruction in its wake, all over. Not just in a central spot."

"Yeah, it zoomed all over the place. I thought I had it. No, I _know _I had it. And then out of the smoke, its hand or tendril or whatever shot of, grabbed me, and threw me to the ground." Korra doesn't bother to keep the fear out of her voice. "Tenzin, that thing grabbed me right out of air and tossed me around when I was in the _Avatar State._ I barely fazed it."

"And that is what is most troubling."

Troubling? Korra was little match for it when she was in the Avatar state. Nothing could stand up to that kind of power, not for very long. It was a last resort for when the Avatar was not powerful enough on his or her own. Sure, Korra tended to abuse it sometimes, but that was beside the point.

A sinking feeling is beginning to tug at Korra's gut. A terrible sort of helplessness, a dozen times worse than the way she had felt with Amon. She had dealt with Amon with only one form of bending. He was human unacceptable to pain and error. An angered spirit was another story entirely.

"Tenzin... how do I stop something like that?"

"I don't know," he says after a period of silence. "Not yet. But that doesn't mean it's unstoppable."

Korra swallows trying to bring about the calm that seems to surround Tenzin. Avatar Aang had stopped a rampaging spirit. Surely she can too."Get some rest," Tenzin say, getting up. "We'll talk more when you are feeling better."

When he leaves, Korra lowers herself onto the cot and wraps herself up in the blankets, wanting nothing more than to sink right into the ground. There is a new sense of terror tugging at her mind, a fear of what could go wrong. Tenzin was right, though. The spirit wasn't invisible, and it was likely unacceptable to being calmed. Or so she wants to believe.

But what if it wasn't?

How do you stop something like that?

Korra hopes she can quickly find the answer, whatever it may be.

**X X X**

**Author's Notes: **Well, this is an interpretation of what happens after the spirit attacks. We only see the spirit grab Korra. I have no idea if she fight the spirit off, or if it leave of its own accord. Either way, I'm sure it'll be one hell of an interesting episode when Season 2 airs. Anyways, this was just an idea that has been in my mind for quite a while after watching teasers they gave at ComiCon.


End file.
